West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has secured assurances from First Bus company over maintaining school services between Upton, Malvern and Hanley Castle High School. The MP met with the company last week ((Friday March 18) to discuss proposals to remove bus services between Upton, Welland, Hanley Swan and parts of Malvern which will come into effect next month. Following discussions with Harriett, the bus company confirmed that school time services will be protected. Two years ago, Harriett lobbied to protect bus services across the county and this week she asked the county council to look again at ways to protect services currently under threat. First Buses has run the threatened route for more than a year after county council subsidies were withdrawn but has now concluded that there are not enough users to keep the route running. Harriett said: “I am grateful that First Buses met and gave me some clear commitments about the protection of services to help students get to and from school. “They also shared the data about the number of people which use the day time buses between Upton and Malvern and it is clear that only a handful of people use the service currently. “I have asked the company to do some urgent research to identify who the users are and to work with the county council to come up with a more cost-effective plan for keeping them mobile. “Given that the Worcester to Tewkesbury route via Kempsey and Upton is continuing and the Worcester to Upton via Callow End is unaffected, there may be a circular route from Upton to Malvern via Welland, Malvern Wells, Great Malvern and the Link that returns via Hanley Swan and connects with the existing route. “I hope the local parish, town and county councils could tender for such a route collectively or develop a Community-led scheme. “We must do what we can to help make sure that rural residents are not left stranded by these changes and look at alternative ways to ensure they can get out and about. And I urge everyone who has a bus service to use it.”